Gray Stone Graduation 2012

This year I was again hired to take photos for graduation at Gray Stone Day School. This year was a little bit more stressful to do so, since I'm currently in school as well as working part time. But I really enjoy doing it, so I gladly agreed to go back and take the photos.

I always feel so inspired when I come back and attend these graduations, and I see how motivated and ready to take on anything some these young graduates are. Its easy to start to feel jaded after a while when you are so focused on completing the individual task at hand. Hearing what some of the graduates had to say during their speeches really reminded me to try and keep my end goals in mind, and not to get swamped with what's going on in the present. Of course, its very important to make sure I get the things done now that need to be done, but if I forget why I'm doing them, its easy to lose that motivation to do the work.

I'm also so glad to see my high school thriving five years after I graduated from there. When I first attended, it was almost brand new, only in its second year my freshman year. Those early times we all hoped we were making the right decision by attending, that not only would it help prepare us for college, but that we would be able to help the school succeed and continue to grow. It certainly had a big influence on helping prepare me for where I am now. I was very proud to say I graduated from this school, and I am just as proud today, especially seeing how much the school has continued to grow. I just hope these graduates realize the influence this school has had on them, and take with them what the learned and discovered through their future experiences. Congratulations to the Class of 2012! 
 

Charlotte Checkers Practice

Back in mid-December, I got the chance to go photograph a practice for the Charlotte Checkers (they are a minor league hockey team for those that don't know).  I got this opportunity through my mom, and her affiliation with my old high school's yearbook.  Basically, its a program where high school photographers get to come in to photograph a Checkers as a way to practice and get tips on sports photography.  The session was led by a fairly well-known photographer, Gregg Forwerck.  He actually is well-known for having produced the photographs for thousands of baseball cards.  You can read an article ESPN did on him here.

My mom wasn't sure that I would be able to go, since I'm obviously no longer in high school (and no longer an undergraduate in college for that matter).  But she talked to the coordinator for it, and since I still contribute a significant number of photographs to my high school's yearbook, they said it was fine.  So I jumped on the opportunity, I knew it would be difficult to have a chance to photograph a team like this again.  In fact, sports photography is one of the areas I consider myself somewhat weaker in, just because it takes so much focus to capture a great moment with sports, so I really knew I would benefit from the chance to practice and get advice.  I spoke with Gregg briefly, and mostly discussed uses of ISO and White Balance, but I also got to hear a couple stories about famous athletes he's worked with, including Cam Newton.

Anyway, here are some of the better shots I got during this session.

 

The last two pictures were actually from a different team, that came out on the ice after the Checkers.  Apparently, this was the team the Checkers faced next.  I'm not sure exactly which team they were, although I thought I heard they were from Chicago, but I know for sure their mascot was the Wolves.

In these next two photos, I decided to try using some intentional blur to create the effect of movement and motion.  Instead of using the fastest shutter speed possible to completely stop the action, I dialed up the aperture, which slowed down the shutter speed.  To get the effect I want (which as you'll see is the subject appearing clear while his surroundings appear blurred, to show the player is moving), I had to pan the camera basically at the same speed as the player so he stayed in the same place in the frame.  As you can imagine, this isn't easy to do, and took quite a few tries to get anything worth showing.  The two I'm showing below were the best I got.

If nothing else, being able to practice this technique made the entire experience worth it.  I always enjoy shooting sports, because I played varsity sports in high school.  I don't really have the opportunity to play sports on a competitive level anymore, so when I get to photograph others playing sports, it reminds me of when I used to.  It certainly does help my ability to photograph a sport when it is one that I played before, because I know what to expect and look for to make a great photograph.  That was also one of the major challenges with shooting a hockey team, because I never played hockey, and have little understanding of the finer points of the game.

Stay tuned for my next photo project!

MeAnn's Wedding/Back to Photography

It's been a while since I've posted anything here. Unfortunately, I was very busy with school the second half of my semester, so not only did I not have much free time for any photography, but I also didn't have much time to update this blog. However, my schedule is much lighter so hopefully I'll have time to share my journey with photos as it continues.

In October, my cousin MeAnn got married to her fiance Sam. I would have loved to have attended, but the weekend she held the wedding I had EMT class the entire day. However, I was able to do something very special for her, which I thoroughly enjoyed, which was to take her bridal photos. I had never done any bridal photos before, so I was a bit nervous about not getting good photos. But since I was photographing somebody I know well, and I had my mom and sister there as well, I was able to relax pretty well and just naturally take photos that ended up turning out well. My mom attended the wedding, and put some of the photos I had taken on a digital frame to be on display.  Here are a few of my favorites from the shoot.

All these photos were on UNC's campus, which is such a beautiful campus. Even though it was a few months ago now, it was so great to be able to take these photos for my cousin. Taking photos that make me happy are great, but it feels even better to take photographs that make people I'm close to happy as well.

Look out for my next blog where I talk about my experience photographing the Charlotte Checkers!

End of Summer/Encore Academy of Dance

Its been a while since I last posted here, but I've had a lot going on in my life, between moving (although it was across town) and starting classes as a post-baccealarate student (which is somewhat of a nightmare).  I've also been working on a couple of different projects, one that I've been working on most of the summer and hope to have done and posted here soon.

In the meantime, I've taken on a couple of other projects.  My most recent got me involved with the Encore Academy of Dance.  My girlfriend Ashley used to dance there, and she got me the opportunity to take headshots for their competition team, as well as headshots for the staff.  This was definitely a brand new experience for me, because I was working with much younger children.  I've always believed that people are some of the most interesting subjects to shoot, but they can also be the most difficult.  You can capture that one expression in a person that can tell you a wonderful story about them. Working with kids poses a new challenge though, especially when you have kids that aren't as cooperative.  You really have to get on their level and get them to trust  you in order for them to open up and let you capture their true self.

I've also recently gotten a new computer (the Thinkpad finally died), and with that I lost my photoshop program I had.  I've downloaded a trial of CS5, and I plan to buy the full version, its great.  Shooting for Encore gave me an opportunity to really test out what CS5 can do.  I got some great results.  The headshots being used were all in black and white, but here are a couple I just played with to sorta get the hang of what I was doing.  I still got some pretty good results with these.

 

During all this, and a couple of times before, I let Ashley borrow my old Nikon d60 to mess with, and start to learn some techniques.  She's showing interest in photography, and I'm definitely going to everything I can to help that along.  She actually was able to capture some candids of different classes with the studio, and here are a couple of her best shots.

This is all for now on Encore, but look for another possible post about Encore if I work with them again!

Leading Lines

Now that I've explained the basics behind the compositional technique of the Rule of Thirds, I'm going to introduce another technique that is a little more subtle and that I consider to be a little bit more difficult to consciously master.

Put simply, leading lines are lines found in a picture that help direct the viewer through the picture, basically giving them paths to explore through the scene you present to them.  Leading lines can be very obvious and purposeful, or more subtle and natural.  Either way, using these properly can help you take photographs that are alive and interesting.  Learning how to incorporate these can highlight, and in some cases even directly point to your subject.

The railroad tracks are a great example of leading lines.

In the above picture, the railroad tracks lead you in different directions around the picture.  The main focus point is close, in the foreground, but the lines of the rails lead your eye into the background, where you see that not only do the tracks split, but they lead somewhere close by, which can leave the viewer wondering what is farther down the tracks.  The ties allow you to explore horizontally, but eventually guide you back to the rails.

Pointing you toward the light.

The leading lines in this example are a bit simpler than in the previous one, in that they really only lead to one central direction and they all converge.  The many lines of the grooves in the pillar guide you into, as well as away from, the light fixture.

Following the branches of a cherry tree.

In this case, your leading lines are much more subtle than the very well defined, straight lines found in the previous examples.  The main branch guides you from the top of the photo down to the bottom, with the secondary branches coming off guiding you toward the cherry blossoms.  For me, the main branch works in the opposite way as well, by guiding you back toward the rest of the tree that you can't actually see, but you know is there.  This should be one of the goals of any photographer, to start the viewer's imagination by giving clues to the rest of the scene and allowing them to work it out for themselves.  Leading lines can be a useful tool in doing this.

The Pinxter Flower

This photo again shows how you can use the lines that nature provides to direct attention to your subject.  The anthers and stamens draw your initial attention, and lead you toward the center of the inflorescence, by continuing along the tube of the flowers.  There are other lines present in the photo, such as those found on the inflorescence in the background, but the ones in the foreground are dominant, and command the attention of the viewer to the main inflorescence, but they still allow you explore every aspect of this particular inflorescence.  Additionally, this picture combines this technique of leading lines with using the rule of thirds.  In fact, the center of the inflorescence is almost exactly at one of the four imaginary intersections I described in my post on The Rule of Thirds, which keeps the photo from being static, in spite of what I said about the leading lines trying to keep you focused on that particular inflorescence. 

You may have noticed that in my first and third photos, the main lines are very centered, at least on the vertical axis, and don't seem to follow the rule of thirds.  These are great examples of when you don't necessarily need to follow the rule of thirds all the time.  When you use a technique such as leading lines to keep the viewer engaged in the photos, you can bend another compositional rule to your liking.  In those cases, I wanted to be a little more dramatic by boldly placing the subject in the center, but still keeping the viewer interested.

For me, leading lines are more of an analytical tool when I am looking at a photo after I have taken it.  I can see why a photograph is a good one by identifying leading lines in some cases.  A good exercise to strengthen your ability to naturally capture leading lines is to go on photography expeditions where you focus solely on lines, and you are consciously aware of what purpose the lines serve in each of your photographs.  Practicing this technique enough will make it come to you naturally.

The Rule of Thirds

The rule of thirds is a pretty important and basic guideline to be aware of in photography.  The basic concept behind this idea is that you want to avoid having subjects in photos too centered.  On the surface, this may seem somewhat counter-intuitive.  The reason for this is because a subject that is too centered will cause the photo to be very static.  Essentially, it prevents the viewer from being able to explore what else is happening in the photo.  A dead-center subject will keep the viewer transfixed on the center of the photo.

Thirds come in to play as a general guide of where you want to put a subject in your photo.  Think of any photo you take as being divided up into thirds, like what is shown below.

You can see that the photo is not only divided into thirds horizontally, but also vertically.  What you want to try to do when composing a picture is to align the subject along the lines that divide each third.  This allows you to focus on the subject on one side of the picture, and have other interesting things happening in the background of your photo.

The main subject, the cat's face, is essentially aligned along the left vertical line of thirds.  Your attention is drawn first to the cat's face, but your focus doesn't stay there since there is more happening in the background to the right.

It is a common practice to not only use just one set of the lines that divide your picture into thirds as a guide of where to place your subject, but to combine the two.  The grid created by dividing a photo into thirds horizontally and vertically essentially gives you four "optimum" places to place your subjects, which are at the four intersections of the lines.

At these four intersections, your subject is aligned by thirds vertically and horizontally.  An example of this is below.

Note how the center of the water tower is placed roughly where there would be an intersection of lines on the grid of thirds.

Generally, this is a good guideline to follow.  Of course, as with any rule, there can be exceptions to the rule of thirds. You don't necessarily need to be sure that the subject aligns with the intersections every time.  Sometimes, you will have situations where your photo will be better with the subject dead center.

The best photos will come when you no longer have to consciously think about this rule while composing a photo.  It can be very helpful to do exercises where you take pictures while keeping the rule of thirds in mind and playing around with where to place your subjects.  Once you become comfortable with placing subjects in different parts of the photos, you can then use your discretion about when you do and don't follow the rule of thirds in order to achieve desired effects in your photos.

Look for a follow up post soon about Leading Lines!

Gray Stone Graduation

Recently, I photographed Gray Stone Day School's commencement.  This wasn't the first time I've covered my high school alma mater's graduation, but this was still pretty significant.  This was the first one they had in their new facility.  Having graduated outside on a random grassy patch beside Merner Gym on Pfeiffer's campus, and photographing later graduation ceremonies in Merner, it was great to see them finally graduate from their own place.

This was actually the second year in a row I've been hired by the school to be the graduation photographer.  Even though its a two hour trip home to do this job, I don't mind it one bit.  Its great to get paid for my work, but its even better to go back and see how much things have changed at Gray Stone since I graduated from there four years ago.  One thing is for sure, graduation now is much better than graduating in 90+ degrees outside!

As much as I enjoy doing this photo job, parts of it can be very challenging.  One problem I ran into while trying to fill orders for CDs I had received wasn't a problem with the photos themselves, but a problem with my computer.  I have a Lenovo Thinkpad I got through UNC's CCI program, a laptop that has given me numerous problems through the years.  However, as I was trying to make all the CDs, it decided it just wasn't going to take orders from me anymore and refused to burn any CDs.  Let me tell you, it comes up with these kind of problems at the most convenient times.  I was already enlisting the help of my mom, who had agreed to divide and conquer the CD burning with me.  So as I was frantically trying to get my computer to cooperate, she was making more and more CDs.  Eventually I gave up on my computer, but my mom came through with the rest.  Hopefully I can get my temperamental laptop to cooperate soon.

Congratulations to all the graduates of the Gray Stone Day School class of 2011!